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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Anyone else think we should discuss training plans RN? I mean, I'd like to get Hazou Sealing 12 and more points in MEW, but I'm not sure how to work with the other team members', especially Akane.
 
eaglejarl said:
Chapter 54: ​

"Oh no," Inoue said, her voice completely deadpan. "Someone has taken over our abandoned fort that we have no need for. Whatever shall we do? Surely we must hurry down there and massacre them all."

"Can't we just leave?" Kagome asked, confused. "You said we don't need the fort, and I thought you were trying to kill people less...?"

Inoue laughed. "Sounds like a good plan," she said, sparing his feelings by not pointing out the joke. "Come on. And be careful—no reason to leave a trail for them."

Moments later, the group was in the trees and moving away quickly.

Hazou, Stealth (9d100): 369
Keiko, Stealth (10d100): 648
Noburi, Stealth (9d100): 653
Akane, Stealth (9d100): 436
Kagome, Stealth (?d100): 682
Inoue, Stealth (?d100): 719
Man, my dice hate Inoue.
Something, Awareness (?d100): 255

Inoue kept them on the move for an hour; Kagome insisted on going another hour after that because "let's not make it easy for the stinkers."

They eventually stopped in a small dell not too far from a stream. The ground was damp, but the dell was hard to see into from any direction.

"Hazou, give us a platform under the shelter," Inoue said. "We don't want to be sleeping on the damp."

Hazou hesitated. "Um...actually, sensei, I was thinking that maybe I shouldn't be making too many Earth Walls. We can't take the shelters down behind us, so it leaves a trail showing where we've been."

Inoue rolled her eyes. "Our camps are always hours apart at ninja speed," she said. "If someone is tracking us, they know that we've been through an area, so finding our camps doesn't give them any extra information. If they aren't tracking us and they stumble across one of our camps, it still doesn't tell them which way we went. Yes, it's a little more information, but not enough to matter most of the time. Besides, I have no interest in sleeping under canvas when I could be sleeping under nice secure stone walls instead. Make with the jutsu, kid."

"Yes, sensei," Hazou said meekly. Moments later there was a comfortable pup-tent-shaped stone structure in front of them. Everyone crawled in and started spreading out bedrolls; it had been a long day.

Watches were kept; the gravely wounded Inoue was excused from watch duty, so Keiko stood watch alone, but Hazou paired with Kagome and Noburi with Akane for their shifts. The night was silent and unthreatening, meaning that Hazou only had to stop Kagome from blowing something up twice.

The two of them had set up atop the slight rise that overlooked the dell in which the shelter rested. The moon was somewhere up above them, but its silvery light was diffuse and weak by the time it trickled past the towering forest giants around them on its way to the ground. Neither ninja could see more than a dozen feet, and being on 'watch' was really more about being on 'listen'.

The trick, Hazou's instructors back at Mist Academy had explained, was to sit silently until the forest around you got accustomed to your presence. Once the nightjars started singing again and the small nocturnal animals began rustling in the bushes, the night became an undisturbed tapestry of sound. You could get the feel of that tapestry, learn its warp and weft until the slightest change became painfully apparent. Even if you didn't hear the sounds of an enemy creeping up on you, the change in the tapestry would be clear.

"Kagome-sensei," Hazou said quietly. "I've been thinking about Akane's birthday. It's coming up, and I wanted to make her something nice."

Kagome sat just close enough that Hazou could see him nod. "She's a good kid," he said, his voice soft as the breeze. "The best of us."

Hazou's eyebrows went up at that. "I was thinking...," he said. "Um, I was thinking about your shaped-charge seals. We could make her a pair of knuckledusters with those seals on them, so she could use them in close combat. It's your seal, though, and I didn't want to presume anything. What do you think?"

"Dumb idea," Kagome said.

"Oh," Hazou said, wincing. "Sorry, I didn't mean to—"

"You don't want to put them on knuckledusters," Kagome went on, oblivious to Hazou's embarrassment. "Then whatever stinker she's punching sees what's coming. Nah, you want these." He held his hand out to Hazou, palm up.

He was wearing the wooden rings that Hazou had seen before. The ring held a small wooden box to his palm. The top of the box was missing except for a narrow lip, showing that inside the box were several small sheets of paper, held in place by the lip. The uppermost paper had Kagome's shaped-charge seal drawn on it; presumably the others did as well. A slot was cut in one side of the box so that Kagome's thumb could touch the sealing paper.

"You punch for 'em with a closed fist, slow and obvious," Kagome said, miming a punch. "Stinker sees it coming, dodges aside, moves in close to counterpunch. You open your hand, turn the palm towards him"—he demonstrated—"push out the top seal"—the thumb made a practiced flick, forcing one of the seals up so it was bulging out of the box—"boom, squash. Four seals in each one. Any more than that, the box gets too big, starts to be obvious. Just gotta be careful to keep your fingers well back. And make sure you set the seals off in the right order. Topmost first then work back." He turned so that he could show both hands. "I usually load two-and-two," he said. He raised the right hand. "Right hand has two directed charges on the top, ten degree blast cones. The bottom two are hundred sixty degrees, designed for stinkers who think they're so clever because they dodge really well. Left hand is the other way around, wide-angle seals on top." He shrugged. "Takes a little practice so you don't blow your hand off or destroy the box, but it works okay. Eight shots is usually enough for one fight. If not, I've got my harness."

Hazou looked at his teacher with new respect. When he and Kagome sparred, the genin had started to win more often than not; Kagome was many things, but a taijutsu master was not among them. Hazou had tried hard not to look down on the man because of it, reminding himself that Kagome simply had a different specialization than he did. Still, he hadn't been able to keep a certain degree of smug superiority. As of now, that feeling was gone.

"Oh," Hazou said faintly. He paused. "So...could we make her a set?"

"No," Kagome said.

"Oh," Hazou said, taken aback. "Okay, I didn't mean to steal your technique. Sorry—"

"Make her your own stinking present," Kagome said. "This one's from me."

o-o-o-o​

In the morning they moved on, traveling fast until afternoon, then searching around until they found a good spot: a low spot ten meters wide between two three-meter ridges. The ground sloped sharply down to the south, where a narrow creek burbled cheerily along.

"Okay, Hazou," Inoue said. "We'll build a cave here. Give us a wall from here up to the top of the far ridge." She gestured to indicate where she meant. "Then another wall from the middle of the first one back to here so it just looks like a shallow dip. Then another sloped wall in the front that blocks off all but one edge. We'll cover the top over with dirt and transplant some ferns and bushes onto it. We'll cover the entrance with branches and it'll be just about impossible to spot."

"Yes, sensei," Hazou said. He walked down the slope a bit, flicked through the handseals and put his hand on the ground. "Earth Release: Multiple Earth Wall," he said, pulling the granite of the wall out in an upward-sloping platform as he'd been told.

"'Multiple Earth Wall' is too long a name," Noburi said, grinning. "I say we shorten it, call it 'MEW'."

Inoue laughed. "I like it," she said. "Okay, Hazou, we need some more walls here. Mew for us."

Hazou looked at her in betrayal. "Sensei," he said, hating himself for the whine in his voice. "Please don't."

"Mew," she said, in a perfect imitation of a kitten. "Mew mew mew."

Hazou moaned and slumped, face in his hands.

"Mew," said Noburi.

Forcing himself to neither pay attention to, nor contemplate the murder of, his teammate, Hazou went through the handseals, gathered his chakra, and touched the wall he'd just built. "Earth Release: M—"

"Mew," said Keiko gravely.

Hazou's concentration shattered and the jutsu failed.

o-o-o-o​

Two hours later, they had a secure shelter set up and were busily collecting dirt to pile on top. (Taking care, of course, to gather it from far away without disturbing the surroundings too much and then obscuring the traces.) It would take a week or more of hard work to cover the entire space with enough dirt to plant the ground cover that Inoue wanted, but it was in progress.

"Not there," Inoue said, just as Hazou was about to pour out his latest load of dirt. She had dropped her henge and was lounging a few yards away in a spot of dappled shade, sipping on a waterskin full of cool water taken from the creek. "More to the left." She nodded with exaggerated decisiveness. "Yes, definitely to the left. Oh, and you probably want to hurry up. It's getting late, we really want to have at least the initial layer in place by tonight."

Hazou straightened up, rubbing the knot in the small of his back. "You know, sensei," he said with what he felt was admirable restraint. "If it's such a rush, you could help."

"But I'm hurt," Inoue said, making puppy eyes at him and waving to the bandage around her middle. "I can barely walk. You wouldn't want me to hurt myself, would you?"

"You ran here just fine," Hazou said, with even more admirable restraint. "You could put on another henge."

Inoue shook her head somberly. "Oh no," she said. "That could be very dangerous. What if something attacked me and broke my henge? I wouldn't be able to defend myself. No, I'm afraid that, no matter how much I would like to help, I must simply lounge here and supervise while you and my clones do all the dirty, sweat-inducing labor."

Hazou glared at her grumpily, meeting her eyes as he defiantly poured out the dirt in the spot where she'd told him not to. He shook the last of it out of his carrysack, then turned to get more.

"Don't pout, Mr. Mew," Inou called.

Hazou growled under his breath and picked up his pace.

o-o-o-o​

Everyone was motivated to get the shelter covered over...mostly so that Inoue would stop teasing them with her exaggerated laziness and faux-innocent 'suggestions' that they work harder. Eight days later their artificial cave was coated in a layer of dirt six inches thick in which large patches of ferns and one small bush had been planted. The area was essentially undetectable unless you already knew what you were looking for.

However pesky she might have been about it, the bedrest and constant attention from Noburi had done Inoue a world of good. She wasn't wincing in pain every time she laughed or took too deep a breath. Moving was still painful, but she insisted on walking to the latrine on her own (although she did cheat by using a henge). After not-as-long-as-Noburi-would-have-liked, she started doing gentle stretches and a few minutes of soft-style taijutsu kata each day.

Their leader's downtime left the rest of the team at loose ends. Hazou and Kagome built a sealing-research bunker well away from camp. Personally, Hazou thought that Kagome was being excessive with the defenses of the bunker, but he went along without complaint.

They were ten days into their stay when Kagome felt the bunker was complete. With nothing further to keep him constantly busy, Hazou sighed and admitted that it was time to get down to the work that he'd been really dreading: socializing with his teammates in order to tone down the drama that was building up.

o-o-o-o​

"May I join you, Noburi?" Kei asked. The first time she'd tried to be supportive seemed to have worked; Noburi had said that her efforts helped. She'd made a point of spending at least a little time with him every day since then.

"Please do," Noburi said, gesturing to the leaf-littered ground beside him. He was sorting through his medical supplies, cataloging what was running low and what would need to be replaced or supplemented when next they were in a town.

Kei settled down beside him. Good, this was going well. "Are you healing well?" she asked, reading the mental script she'd prepared.

"Inoue-sense thinks so, but it's taking me a long time to get better," Noburi said with a smile.

Kei blinked. "What?"

"It was, uh, a joke," Noburi said, losing the smile. "Like, I'm good at healing other people, but it's taking me a long time to get over my own injuries."

Kei nodded. "Ah, I see." Why did she have to be so slow?! She never got jokes, and it was always embarrassing to have them explained.

Embarrassing for Noburi as well, apparently. He was blushing to his ears, and suddenly fascinated with counting every drug-containing twist of paper he had.

"So...you are getting better?" Kei asked awkwardly. Her script had run out when she sat down. She'd expected that all she'd needed to do was get the conversation started and it would follow from there. In retrospect, her bloodline would have told her that that was a terrible plan.

"Yeah," Noburi said. "I've been keeping it sterile, and it's mostly sealed up. I probably don't need the crutches anymore, but I'll use them for another couple of days before making that leg fully weight-bearing. Another three or four days after that, I should be good as new."

"Excellent," Kei said. "That will greatly improve your functionality and therefore that of the team."

"Uh, yeah," Noburi said, looking hurt.

Damnit! Damnit! Damnit! Why could she not manage to say the right thing to anyone, ever?!

"I...think that I may not have said that correctly," Kei said. "I meant that I'm glad you will be feeling better."

"Oh," Noburi said. "Thanks." He gave her a small smile. (Yes! Her socialization was improving!) "So...um, how are you doing?"

Kei thought about that for a moment. It would be easy to brush it off with the traditional 'fine', but Mari-sensei had repeatedly told her that the way to make friends was to let yourself be vulnerable. Friendship was formed through trust, she said, and trust was built by offering someone the opportunity to hurt you in a small way and then seeing that they did not take it.

"I am...unsettled?" Kei said. "I don't feel like I am a net benefit to the team. Sensei is sensei; she is powerful and wise and keeps us together. You heal everyone and provide us with chakra so that we are far more powerful as a group than a randomly-selected group of equivalent experience would be. Kagome is paranoid, but he's a genius at sealcrafting. We would not have survived the tapirs without the defenses he constructed. Hazou is an excellent fighter and, for the most part, an excellent planner."

She paused, an unworthy part of herself wanting to bite down on the words that had to come next. The Mori training would not allow it; truth must be faced, no matter how painful. The founder of her clan, Mori Genedurin, had said it best: "What is true is already so. Facing it does not make it worse, and refusing to face it does not make it go away. The Mori will always face what is true."

"Ishihara is a skilled fighter," Kei said. "Her optimism is clearly good for the team's morale." No, not far enough. When dealing with internal bias, it was important to go one step beyond the begrudged minimum. "Without her, things would be much harder." She shrugged. "And then there's me."

Noburi looked askance at her. "Are you seriously telling me that you don't feel like you have anything to offer?" he said, disbelief ringing in his tone.

"I am skilled with weapons, and I have the summoning contract," Kei admitted. Alarm bells were going off in her head. She hadn't meant to be this open! She had intended to make a small gesture of vulnerability, admit that she wasn't completely happy and cheerful and perfect. How had she suddenly ended up here?!

"Yeah...?" Noburi said. "Those seem pretty valuable to me." His hands were still and his eyes on her, his medical supplies forgotten as he clearly waited for the other shoe to drop.

"I didn't say I had no value," Kei said. "Simply that I was not a net benefit. It's nothing though...I suppose it was just a momentary thought. Not important." She cast about for a topic, any topic. "It seems like your medical supplies are running low. We should make a supply run sometime soon."

"Hang on," Noburi said, putting the medical pack aside. "You're not getting away from this that easily. How can you possibly feel like you aren't a net benefit? You're the best fighter in the group aside from Inoue-sensei and she's a jonin. You have the pangolin contract. You've got the best situational awareness of anyone I've ever met who wasn't a jonin; you were the one who spotted most of the things that tried to attack us on the way here."

"Inoue-sensei spotted them first," Kei protested.

"Yes, but except for that treeworm, she didn't actually say anything when she saw them. She thought that leaving it for us would be 'good training'," Noburi said with a disgruntled snort. "And of the rest of us, you were the one who spotted the ambushes."

"You spotted the bushleaper," Kei said weakly. "And Hazou spotted the vampire grass."

Noburi rolled his eyes. "Yes, and you were the first to spot everything else."

"Well...," Kei said uncomfortably. "Mostly I watched Kagome. Inoue-sensei must have told him to let us deal with the threats, but he is a terrible actor. He spotted all of those things and started to throw something explosive at them, then forced himself to stop. I just watched him and paid attention to where he'd been aiming."

Noburi laughed. "See, that's the thing you really bring to the team: You're smart. I was watching the woods, and it didn't occur to me to watch the crazy guy instead."

"I don't think he's crazy," Kei said. "Insanity is defined as a set of one or more maladaptive and uncontrollable behaviors. Kagome's paranoia is highly adaptive."

Noburi waved the objection aside dismissively. "Whatever. Point is, you bring something to the table that no one else does, not even Inoue-sensei: your brain. You are by far the best of us at spotting problems and preventing them, and at finding strategies that make things easier or better. Not even Inoue-sensei can do that."

"It's just my bloodline," Kei said, looking away. Yes, there it was. She was valuable for her genetics. Oh joy.

Anger flashed across Noburi's face and he slapped a hand on the ground. "No!" he said. "Damnit, Keiko, stop that! It's not your bloodline, it's you. You didn't use your bloodline to figure out that you should be watching Kagome. You didn't use your bloodline when you pointed out a better way for Hazou to arrange the walls of the shelter together so it didn't leak as much. You didn't use your bloodline when you found those herbs that made the stew taste like something other than brown glop."

"That was just my clan training," Kei said. "Part of logistics is knowing the effects of food and other supplies on morale. That includes knowing what herbs and spices to send in a supply drop."

"Yes!" Noburi said, half-shouting. "And knowing how to punch things is part of Hazou's contribution to the team, and knowing how to stitch wounds is part of mine, and knowing how to talk to people is part of Inoue-sensei's! What we know is part of what we all bring to the table, Keiko. How in the world can you not see that you're a benefit to the team?!"

"Net benefit," Kei corrected, but the words were less certain. "I make too many mistakes. I'm too awkward, I offend people. I can't get along with Ishihara, and it causes friction. I know it causes friction, and I still can't get over it. I should be stronger than that."

Noburi's fists were clenched in frustration. "Keiko," he said, forcing calm into his voice. "You really need to get past this. I think even sensei finds Akane's 'spirit of youth' thing aggravating sometimes. It's not like you and Akane are rolling around on the ground every day having cat fights." He stopped talking for a moment and his eyes got slightly glassy, but he quickly shook himself back into focus. "She rubs you the wrong way, that's fine. Teammates don't have to like everything about each other, they just have to be able to work together." He grinned. "Mr. Look-at-me-I'm-so-perfect Kurosawa annoys the crap out of me a lot of the time, but I'm still happy to have him at my back. Do you trust Akane to have yours?"

Kei's mouth pursed as though she'd bitten a lemon. "Well...yes," she admitted grudgingly.

"And will you have hers, the next time it all drops in the pot?"

"Yes," she said immediately. Ishihara was her teammate and Kei would watch her back because that was what teammates did. She could see where Noburi was going with this, though, and she didn't like it.

Noburi spread his hands. "There you go, then," he said. "You're teammates, and you're working together in the only way that matters. Even if you don't get along all the time, that's fine."

"I suppose," Kei said, more to make the conversation stop than anything.

Noburi studied her, recognizing the agreement for what it was but accepting it as progress. "You could cat-fight with her a little, if you wanted," he said, giving her an impudent grin. "I wouldn't mind."

She shot him a half-hearted glare and pushed herself to her feet. It was definitely time to move on; she'd built enough trust through vulnerability for one day!




XP AWARD: 13

Vote time! What to do now?

Voting ends on Wednesday, July 6, 2016, at 12pm London time.

NB: I didn't get through a lot of what was in the plan, but I ran out of time. The rest of it will need to wait for @Velorien.
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Aaah, Sundays and Thursdays are always bright spots in my week. Brilliant as always, Eaglejarl.
MadScientist said:
Wow.
Everyone ripped into Hazou this chapter.
Except Akane.

And now we need to fix Hazou's friendship with Noburi again because apparently we annoy the hell out of him.

As well as making Kei see Akane in a better light using social flowcharts of all things.

Should be... interesting.
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Nah, he and Nobby're fine. The impression I got was more familial annoyance, not genuine.

So, for Akane's birthday, I think we should consider asking Mari how many fighting styles she knows, and if there are any she thinks might be suitable for Akane

...We're going to get everyone else's birthday presents for her sorted before our own, aren't we?
 
faflec said:
Anyone else think we should discuss training plans RN? I mean, I'd like to get Hazou Sealing 12 and more points in MEW, but I'm not sure how to work with the other team members', especially Akane.
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We already voted to get Hazou Sealing 12, so we're good on that count. As far as Akane goes, I think we should strongly consider working on a fighting style for her, with Mari's help or otherwise. Keiko has summon stuff to work with, Nobby needs remedial water whip training.
 
So like... how durable ARE Earth Clones? If we're going to be getting to the point where we can half cost them, it's worth asking. Would they be difficult to destroy with taijutsu? @eaglejarl @Velorien
 
WE ARE 2XP AWAY FROM MEDICAL NINJUTSU 10 MEDICAL NINJUTSU 10 BABY

[X] Training Hazou: MEW MEW MEW MEW
[X] Training Noburi: WOLOLO
Control 9 [18]
Control 10 [38]
Bank 57XP (Medic Fund)
Save 0XP

This gives us the Control requirement for Medical Ninjutsu 10, which additionally serves to give Noburi +60CP to bump his (and our) die rolls. It also gives us a direction: once Inoue-sensei's fully healed we can head straight to Iron and level up to 10 from our bank + 2XP from our plans.

[X] Training Keiko: Pangolin Whisperer
Presence 6 [12]
Diplomacy 11 [23]
Intelligence 2 [27]
Summoning Technique 4 [31]
Summoning Technique 5 [36]
Summoning Technique 6 [42]
Save 2XP

This gives Keiko Diplomacy 11 and Summoning Technique 6, which I think is more than enough to get some good summons on our side.

[] Training Keiko: Prodigal Summoner
Intelligence 2 [4]
Summoning Technique 4 [8]
Summoning Technique 5 [13]
Summoning Technique 6 [19]
Intelligence 3 [25]
Summoning Technique 7 [32]
Summoning Technique 8 [40]
Save 4XP

Here's an alternative for those of you who think Diplomacy 10 is enough, and would rather have the 2 extra Summoning Technique levels.
 
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Actually, no.

[-] Training Hazou: MEW MEW MEW

[-] Training Hazou: MEW MEW MEW MEW

[X] Research Hazou: PMYF

We have been putting this off forever. The XP will still be there when we're Minato.
 
PMYF relies on substitution to make it work. That's why it's the "poor" man's version. Just a reminder for formulating training plans, that perhaps some of our team members might need a boost there.
 
For training I would like us to build up more of a capacity of chakra than put more points into any skill. If we are going to be using it more we should gather the resources so that we can use it more. I know we have Noburi with us, but we can't reliably chug down some water in the middle of a fight. I would also like to have the group round out their skills a little more, rather than continue to specialize in just one thing but that might just be me. To start rounding things out more Henge! I would like to be able to shapeshift reliably.

Force rings, right out of Dresden Files! Ha!

So we know what Kagome is going to gift her, now we have to come up with our own gift now. Do you think we could build/find a multitool in the shape of a comb or other decorative item?
 
Diomedon said:
PMYF relies on substitution to make it work. That's why it's the "poor" man's version. Just a reminder for formulating training plans, that perhaps some of our team members might need a boost there.
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Particularly Keiko.

As an aside... @eaglejarl @Velorien How much risk is there to Technique Hacking, as compared to sealing? I mean, it'd depend on what you're trying to do to some extent, of course, but is it somewhat safer in general?
 
eaglejarl said:
"Make her your own stinking present," Kagome said. "This one's from me."
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Hah, yes. Akane gets a combat powerup and we don't have to do any more work.

Now to find something else to give her.

eaglejarl said:
"I don't think he's crazy," Kei said. "Insanity is defined as a set of one or more maladaptive and uncontrollable behaviors. Kagome's paranoia is highly adaptive."
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Clearly we should strive to emulate him.

[X] Training Noburi: WOLOLO
[X] Training Keiko: Pangolin Whisperer
[X] Research Hazou: PMYF
 
Out of curiosity, have we ever used "The Best Laid Schemes" or "A Frankly, Terrible idea" portions of Keiko's bloodline?

I think our next plan should focus mainly on Summon Quest and Dealing with Keiko's Issues, as well as working on Akane's birthday present, while in the background we work on PMYF. I also think we should consider having Kagome help us with PMYF so that he learns how to make it for himself, too; if nothing else, expanding his own sealing repertoire is not something I'm against.
 
My read on this update is that the team is fine. We're not all the bestest of buddies, but we can all get along and we all see the value in each other's skills, with the exception of Keiko for her own.

I can see asking for a patented Mari-sensei team building exercise at some point when we're all healed, especially one that plays to Keiko's strengths. But I don't see anything active that Hazou should do on this front right now.

Speaking of healed, @eaglejarl, @Velorien, what is Noburi's expert opinion on how much longer until Mari is healed up? (And himself? I'm not sure who finished the update still hurt.)
 
Sleeps Furiously said:
My read on this update is that the team is fine. We're not all the bestest of buddies, but we can all get along and we all see the value in each other's skills, with the exception of Keiko for her own.

I can see asking for a patented Mari-sensei team building exercise at some point when we're all healed, especially one that plays to Keiko's strengths. But I don't see anything active that Hazou should do on this front right now.

Speaking of healed, @eaglejarl, @Velorien, what is Noburi's expert opinion on how much longer until Mari is healed up? (And himself? I'm not sure who finished the update still hurt.)
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While the team's good, I'd still rather Keiko and Akane get along a little bit better, and while I'm not inclined to force it (THAT would not go well), I think it'd be good for them both to have each other as a tempering, friendly influence on the other.
 
eaglejarl said:
"Kagome-sensei," Hazou said quietly. "I've been thinking about Akane's birthday. It's coming up, and I wanted to make her something nice."

Kagome sat just close enough that Hazou could see him nod. "She's a good kid," he said, his voice soft as the breeze. "The best of us."
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Wow, did not expect that from him.

eaglejarl said:
"Yes, sensei," Hazou said. He walked down the slope a bit, flicked through the handseals and put his hand on the ground. "Earth Release: Multiple Earth Wall," he said, pulling the granite of the wall out in an upward-sloping platform as he'd been told.

"'Multiple Earth Wall' is too long a name," Noburi said, grinning. "I say we shorten it, call it 'MEW'."

Inoue laughed. "I like it," she said. "Okay, Hazou, we need some more walls here. Mew for us."

Hazou looked at her in betrayal. "Sensei," he said, hating himself for the whine in his voice. "Please don't."

"Mew," she said, in a perfect imitation of a kitten. "Mew mew mew."

Hazou moaned and slumped, face in his hands.

"Mew," said Noburi.

Forcing himself to neither pay attention to, nor contemplate the murder of, his teammate, Hazou went through the handseals, gathered his chakra, and touched the wall he'd just built. "Earth Release: M—"

"Mew," said Keiko gravely.

Hazou's concentration shattered and the jutsu failed.
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And once again, I am very confused as to what language we're speaking. This caught my attention when Jiraiya asked about the number of p's in 'nipple', and then was depicted as writing down his tip to Keiko in kanji in the same scene. And then Inoue's gift had 'Akage no Ha', and Kagome's gift had kanji on it. Now MEW is getting initialized.

I'm assuming this is just the sort of thing that will just kinda be handwaved away.

eaglejarl said:
She paused, an unworthy part of herself wanting to bite down on the words that had to come next. The Mori training would not allow it; truth must be faced, no matter how painful. The founder of her clan, Mori Genedurin, had said it best: "What is true is already so. Facing it does not make it worse, and refusing to face it does not make it go away. The Mori will always face what is true."

"Ishihara is a skilled fighter," Kei said. "Her optimism is clearly good for the team's morale." No, not far enough. When dealing with internal bias, it was important to go one step beyond the begrudged minimum. "Without her, things would be much harder."
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This is good news, but I wish she could've said some of this to Pandaa. Still, if they could become actual friends, that would be really major for her to have a female friend.

So I guess I should probably write down the formal specs for PMYF now. Joy. I intend to be fairly comprehensive, having multiple possible layouts depending on what is feasible for Hazou to try. I will work on it after I am done with my omake.
 
Cariyaga said:
I am so looking forward to researching the summon scroll.
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I haven't read through most of the early discussion of the quest. So while I know PMYF stands for Poor Man's Yellow Flash, I don't know what it exactly consists of.

However, I do think researching ths summoning scroll before attempting any sort of space time ninjutsu is a good idea.

This is my own hypothesis:

When the summoning jutsu is initiated, a sealing script of sort appears.



Let's call this the summoning seal, for discussion purposes. Whatever is summoned disappears from its original postition with a puff of smoke, and reappears on the summoning seal, yes?

So how is it decided what is to be summoned? The contract, obviously. The animal summon scrolls are a pact of sorts, that allow human summoners to summon the animal into the human world, while the animals can reverse-summon the contracted human into the summon realm/the seventh path. The pact is between all summons of a tribe and a particular few humans in most cases.

So here's what I assume Minato is doing. His Hiraishin seals are partly pre-made summon seals. As Minato made the seals, and initiates the technique, consider him the summoner.

Again, when Minato uses his technique, he himself is summoned to his Hiraishin mark. In this case, Minato is the 'summoned creature'.

So essentially, his Hiraishin could actually be a contract between himself and himself - a loop that allows Minato to summon himself to a different location. A theoretical space-time ninjutsu.

Points to work out in this theory are:
  • How summon contracts are made. How the contract allows creature and man to summon each other.
  • How to apply this knowledge and create a contract between ourself.
  • How to activate the seal from a distance
While I'm unsure if point two will work, I think we can work out a contract between two people. Like us summoning Kagome and vice versa; something like what Pein's animal path does with his other bodies, and the more useful examples- Naruto and his own clones. If we work out how to loop a contract with ourself, then there's our jutsu.

Lastly, we need to ask Kagome if a seal can be activated from a distance. This part has me stumped.

In short, we place the pre-made summon seal in a certain location, activate it from another location, and then appear at the location of the seal when we trigger the jutsu. Space and time defied.

[Note: This is all conjecture. Making this would require extensive experimentation on our part, and Kagome certainly won't approve of that.]
 
Hazou really needs one of those shaped explosive dispensers. That weapon should combine incredibly well with Loki, the fighting style is practically tailor-made to hoodwink people into letting him suckerpunch them with an explosion.
 
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EvilPorygon said:
So while I know PMYF stands for Poor Man's Yellow Flash, I don't know what it exactly consists of.
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PMYF is a storage seal with a log in it set to dispense the log on a timer.

You tie it to a kunai, activate the timer for 1 second, throw the kunai behind an enemy, a log comes out and you substitute with the log to get behind the enemy.

That's it.

Edit: Actually that isn't it. It also works as a railgun.
 
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